


Reeled

by lunchbucket



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Blow Jobs, Boating, Colorado, First Kiss, Fishing, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Summer, home from college
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 04:26:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19716184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunchbucket/pseuds/lunchbucket
Summary: Remus decides to finally spend a summer day with his childhood best friend, Sirius, after not seeing him for three years. But when old feelings quickly start to resurface, Remus is left feeling like no time has passed at all.





	Reeled

Remus pulled up to the marina in the trusty old Subaru hatchback that he’d had since high school, only a few minutes late. He lugged the cooler out of the backseat before heading over to the dock, where they were all instructed to meet up. It felt a little strange, he thought, meeting up with Sirius and his new college friends — being the odd one out, even though he had known Sirius practically his whole life.

“Remus Lupin!”

He heard Sirius’ voice and his footfalls before he actually saw him. But it only took a moment before the familiar sheen of black hair belonging to a body wearing only a pair of crimson swim trunks was running towards him at breakneck speed. In an instant he was being lifted up in an exuberant embrace and swung around in a circle.

“I’m so glad you made it,” Sirius crooned happily as he gave Remus one more squeeze around the ribcage before placing him back down on the ground.

“I told you I would, why are you acting so surprised?” Remus asked as he tried not to stare too obviously at his childhood best friend, whom he hadn’t seen in person since leaving for college three years ago. He looked so different; broader shoulders and just a barely noticeable amount of effortless muscle along his arms and abdomen. His smile was even brighter than Remus remembered, and an ease about him that hadn’t been there before. He tried to keep his eyes trained on Sirius’ face, but even that was dangerous business. 

“I seem to recall about a dozen high school parties you promised that you would come to and then you never showed up,” Sirius laughed as he nodded over to a pontoon boat at the end of the dock. “But you’re going to love these guys, I’ve been wanting the five of us to hang out since I met them during rush freshman year,” he said, steering Remus with a hand on the small of his back.

“Oh,” Remus said, not sure how else to respond. He was surprised to hear this, truthfully — Remus had figured that he had been out of sight and out of mind for Sirius since they left to their respective colleges.

They arrived at the pontoon and Remus was greeted by three smiling friends of Sirius’ — a tall, lanky guy with glasses and his hair all over the place, a gorgeous girl with bright red hair wearing a green bikini and sitting on his lap, and a shorter blonde guy who waved to Remus with such enthusiasm that it made him break out into a wider grin. 

The three friends introduced themselves as James, Lily, and Peter, but Remus had already known that based on all of the tagged photos from Sirius’ Facebook. 

“Remus! We are so happy you actually came home to Colorado this summer,” Lily started sweetly as she stood up to take the cooler of beers from Remus and he stepped onto the boat, “We’ve been hearing stories about you since we met Sirius.”

“Ah, well thanks for inviting me,” Remus replied immediately with a smile, already at ease that everyone was so friendly. 

“This is James’ parents’ boat — isn’t it great?” Sirius asked Remus as James pivoted more squarely into the drivers seat and began to back the pontoon out from the dock. He continued talking before Remus had a chance to answer, “They have a house on the lake too. We go there all the time during the school year, it’s freaking amazing.”

“Yeah, man, we’re barbecuing after we hang out on the lake for a couple of hours,” James said as he turned to look at Remus before putting the boat into forward drive, a serious look suddenly coming over his face, “And you’re coming over. Already told Mom and Dad you’d be there and you can’t disappoint the Potters.”

“Alright,” Remus laughed; he didn’t have plans for the rest of the day. For the rest of the summer, really, except a research project he was helping a grad student with to make some extra cash.

“Well that was easy,” James exclaimed happily, turning bodily in his seat toward his friend, “and you said he would put up a fight, Sirius.”

“He used to be far more disagreeable,” Sirius expounded playfully, still standing, but now resting his hip against the metal railing of the boat shade, “Living abroad for a year has changed him, it seems.”

“He does strike me as extremely sophisticated,” James observed sincerely. Remus could not tell if he was being facetious or not. 

“But quirky,” Lily threw in as she tied her hair up into a high ponytail, head tilting to the side in thought as she looked at Sirius, “like Sherlock Holmes. Quiet and unassuming, but observant and always ready with something witty to say.”

“Oh man,” Remus laughed, running a hand through his golden hair in his characteristic shyness, “high compliments. I hope I can live up to them.”

“He’s totally Sherlock Holmes,” Sirius agreed with gusto, “He got away with _everything_ in high school. Always one step ahead of everyone else. Sneaky bastard.”

“I knew it. I can always tell these things,” James muttered nonsensically as the boat crossed out of the ‘no wake’ zone and he accelerated quickly.

As James navigated the boat out toward the middle of the lake, Peter kneeled down to start messing about with the big duffle bag of fishing gear he had brought. He would be the one to bring fishing gear, Remus thought, enjoying the mental game of figuring out how this group of friends got on together and what roles they played. 

Lily seemed particularly interested in fishing and was enthusiastically asking Peter to assign her set-up tasks. Remus watched on as Lily asked Peter what areas of the lake they were more likely to get a bite, and he was in the process of explaining that the long apparatus he’d just pulled out of the bag — a FishFinder, apparently belonging to his dad — would answer that question for them.

James, on the other hand, seemed far less interested in fishing. As soon as he turned off the boat’s engine and gave the keys to Peter, he grabbed a handful of beers out of the cooler to hand out to his friends before flopping down on one of the padded benches near Peter and Lily. He spread his incredibly long limbs out with a great satisfied sigh, one knee angled up to rest his foot on the cushion, as he fiddled with his phone for a moment. He must have been setting up bluetooth because he let out a whoop when a couple seconds later, the speaker on the boat started up with a steel string guitar lick and the singer launched into a lyric about some beach somewhere, and he uncapped his beer.

“Hi,” Sirius said as he silently sat down next to Remus, just as Remus began to take a drink of his beer, surprising him for a moment, “are you having fun yet?”

“Of course I am,” Remus smiled after he swallowed.

“I’ve missed you,” Sirius said, bumping his shoulder against Remus’, “We barely talked while you were in London last year.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Remus sighed offhandedly. He had been hoping that he wouldn’t have to explain himself much about his lack of communication over the past year. Because in truth, Remus had made the very deliberate decision to let go of Sirius before going to London to study abroad for a year — needing to live his life and stop holding onto the past, or something like that.

“That’s okay,” Sirius replied simply, his head tilted to the side as he smiled at Remus. It was a softer smile that he wasn’t used to seeing on Sirius, who was always either grinning like a maniac or not.

“What?” Remus couldn’t help but to mirror his expression, probably looking far too fond of Sirius than he’d wanted to. But it was impossible not to; it had always been like this. 

“I’ve just missed you a lot,” Sirius confirmed again.

“That’s crazy,” Remus rolled his eyes to disguise the shiver he had just felt run up his spine against his will, “you have so much fun in Boulder. I’m sure you don’t miss having an introverted best friend you have to babysit when you drag him out.”

“Of course I do, I liked babysitting you,” Sirius commented, his eyes flashing as he lifted his beer to his mouth.

Remus shook his head and forced his eyes away from Sirius’ slightly parted lips, but also smiled as he brought his beer up to his own lips and looked ahead. Sirius kept watching him, though, as if he were remembering Remus’ face after such a long time apart. Just like Remus wanted to do to him.

“So how was London?” Sirius started again, “I bet you fit right in there.”

“I did, actually,” Remus said, running his hand through his hair again to shake out the droplets of water he just realized had landed there from James’ overzealous driving. “I loved it so much. I was sad when the semester ended.”

“I bet. But I’m glad you’re back,” Sirius said. They smiled at each other again before Sirius continued a beat later, “What was your favorite part?”

“About London?” Remus asked pensively and looked out ahead again as if in thought, but mostly to avoid looking at Sirius who had now angled his body in Remus’ direction, “I liked doing all the sight-seeing, but I guess my favorite thing was when I began to feel like I actually lived there. Like when people began to recognize me at my favorite pub, or when I could help some tourists navigate the Tube.”

“Cool,” Sirius said and rested his chin on the arm that was propped up lazily on the side of the boat, “Maybe we can go there together one day.”

Remus laughed lightly. “Whatever you want, Sirius.”

Sirius’ eyes drew down for a moment and his foot began to tap against the floor of the boat. When he looked back up at Remus, he lifted his chin and asked, “Did you make a lot of friends?”

“I made some friends in my program, yeah,” Remus nodded, “Other exchange students. And then an English girl named Mary who would always study in the same coffee shop.”

“Did you make any _friends_?” Sirius clarified as he raised his eyebrows meaningfully, “That’s like half the point of studying abroad, right?”

“Sirius—“ Remus sputtered incredulously before being quickly cut off.

“It’s true, Remus, don’t act like meeting a Brit hasn’t been your dream since you watched your first Colin Firth movie. Or Kenneth Braunnagh in Hamlet in our English Lit class. Or wait, was it Hugh Grant with that snarky British wit of his?”

Remus let out a soft chuckle. “All of the above,” Remus admitted in a tone of faux guiltiness.

Sirius tapped his foot again. “So did you?” 

“Did I what?” 

“Did you meet any British guys?” Sirius clarified again.

“Uh, a couple, yeah,” Remus offered.

A large smile slowly grew on his face, as if he were seeing Remus in a new light, before he asked, “What happened?”

“Why are you so interested?” Remus asked suspiciously.

“Because I think you’re interesting,” Sirius admitted freely as a small smile began to dance across his lips.

“Mary and I took a trip to Paris one long weekend,” Remus revealed with a sigh. Sirius probably wouldn’t let up until he got at least a little bit of information. “I went to my first gay club. Apparently guys are pretty attracted to me,” Remus laughed lightly at the memory, “it was eye-opening.”

“Of course they are, the only person who has never realized that is you,” Sirius commented easily, as if Remus should have known this all along. He followed up, “So, any guys you were with longer term?”

Remus hummed thoughtfully as he identified the unfamiliar feeling of having Sirius interested in his romantic life, “There was one.”

Sirius raised his eyebrows in surprise, a strange look in his eyes that Remus hadn’t seen before when they were younger. But then again, Remus’ sex life had never been a topic of conversation then either.

“How did you meet him?” Sirius asked, “Are you going to keep in touch?”

“I met him at a pub after class one night. And I guess we might keep in touch sporadically,” Remus offered, then added “We aren’t going to have a relationship, if that’s what you’re asking.” 

Sirius beamed at this information and Remus felt the unfortunately familiar spinning feeling in the pit of his stomach. Only an hour back in his presence and Sirius had already reduced him back to his sixteen year old self, giving him hope that he adored Remus as much as he adored Sirius, and in the same way. Always that grain of hope to keep his heart on the line. And when Remus felt that again, he remembered exactly why he intentionally hadn’t spent time with Sirius in three years.

Remus didn’t wait for Sirius to reply, as he stood up to join the rest of the party. They were at the other end of the pontoon, and Peter was teaching Lily how to bait her line while James lounged, limbs thrown around haphazardly in the perfect picture of relaxation, and presumably trying to get a tan. He lifted his sunglasses up a crack to look over as Remus walked by. 

“Do you all fish on this lake often?” Remus asked as he left the other two behind at the back of the boat, eager to engage in a conversation with somebody other than Sirius.

“Yeah, all the time,” Peter answered excitedly, “James likes to joke that I’m only friends with him to use his parents’ boat, and that’s probably only half true—“

“You rat,” James sang as Peter kept talking.

“—But I really do love fishing. Always have. And this lake is filled with rainbow trout,” Peter finished, sounding reverent.

“And he’s a wonderful teacher,” Lily chimed in, ruffling Peter’s hair affectionately, as his eyes stayed glued to the screen of the FishFinder while he drove the boat to the optimal spot on the lake. She looked over at Remus with an open expression and said, “We have two fishing licenses so we can have six rods out, Remus. You want Peter to help you set one up?”

“That’d be great,” Remus said back to her with a smile, grateful yet again for how welcoming this crew was, “But can do it myself though, I grew up fishing with my dad.”

“Hell yeah, we are gonna bring back dinner!” Peter exclaimed as he whirled around in the driver’s seat, clearly delighted that somebody else with some fishing skill was on the boat with him. Remus could sense that Peter usually did all the work whenever they went out in James’ parents’ boat. “Did you hear that, James?” Peter yelled over, but was met with silence; Remus turned back to catch James sitting up on his elbows talking to Sirius in a hushed tone, before he called back after a beat, “Oh, thank _God.”_

The morning passed in the blink of an eye, and by about 2pm, they were all ready to take the boat back to the marina after having the sun beating down on them all day. Plus they had caught about six fish altogether, which according to Peter, was about double his usual haul. Even Sirius caught one with Remus’ instruction, as Peter kept griping in the background that Sirius had always refused to fish with him and usually just got drunk and sunburned with James while singing country music. Remus laughed at that because he had heard of nothing more quintessential Sirius in his life.

After docking the boat and cleaning their catch, Sirius wordlessly jumped into Remus’ car with him as the three others rode with James. “I have missed this sweet little baby, too,” Sirius crooned and patted the dashboard affectionately. Remus snorted and Sirius smiled at him, then proceeded to give Remus play-by-play directions to the Potters’ lake house. Within minutes, Remus was pulling up to an expansive ranch style house situated perfectly for a view of the lake with the mountains behind it.

The Potters were incredibly welcoming, and it was clear from their first interactions that they treated Sirius like a son. They were particularly excited to meet Remus, in a way that suggested they had heard a lot about him. They asked him about UCLA, his year in London, and hundreds of questions about what Sirius had been like in high school (“a terror, truly, but yes Mrs. Potter, he was always this handsome.”)

“Is there a place I can change my clothes?” Remus eventually asked. He knew he didn’t actually smell like fish and sweat, but he sure felt like he did.

“Go use the guesthouse,” James answered quickly as he led Remus outside by the shoulders and faced him toward it so that he couldn’t possibly miss it, “And take your time. There’s a shower and towels in there, and we’ll be outside starting to grill when you’re done.”

“Thanks James,” Remus supplied. Sirius had been right, Remus really did like all of his friends, a lot.

Remus walked into the bathroom of the guesthouse, deciding to take James up on the offer to shower. After just a couple of minutes under the spray of warm water, he felt refreshed enough to rejoin the rest of the group. He turned off the shower, wrapped a towel around his hips and stepped out to get dressed. He realized he had left his backpack in the entry of the guesthouse and padded out of the bathroom to retrieve it. 

“Hi.” 

Remus jumped in surprise when he heard Sirius’ voice. “What are you doing?” Remus asked slowly as his eyes found Sirius leaning against the door, gaze directed steadily at Remus.

“I wanted to get you alone,” Sirius answered simply as he pushed himself off the door. Remus wanted to kick himself for not bringing his damn backpack into the bathroom with him. He turned to walk over to it again, but Sirius was quicker. Within a second he was right in front of Remus.

“What are you doing?” Remus repeated, his voice slightly cracking this time.

“I’m not too late, am I?” Sirius asked with absolutely no trace of discomfort in his voice, much to Remus’ annoyance. He looked up at Remus, visibly drawing a path from Remus’ eyes slowly down to his mouth.

Remus stood frozen, eyes wide, unable to even ask Sirius what he had meant about being too late, because of their proximity. And the fact that Remus was standing in front of Sirius wearing only a towel wasn’t helping the situation either.

He could have sworn that his heart stopped when Sirius leaned forward and pressed his lips against Remus’. It wasn’t light or hesitant, but firm and enthusiastic, just like everything that Sirius did in life. Remus remained frozen for another second, until he felt Sirius’ hand at his right hip, wasting no time before dragging his fingers up his abdomen. 

Something clicked into place for Remus at that moment, like a gear shifting, and his lips responded with fervor, kissing Sirius back through a deep sigh that he felt through his whole body. But his kiss was tempered, not as eager as his body was screaming for. He kept the eight-year repressed desire for this very moment at bay, keeping his hands pinned to his side as he let Sirius control the pace, his lips moving but his mind a little too shocked to comprehend it all. 

Sirius pulled Remus tighter against him, and Remus thought that his mouth tasted like beer, and sweat, and something sweeter like sugarplums. As soon as Remus’ mind began to catch up to the moment, Sirius’ lips were gone from his mouth and moving down his body instead. 

Remus’ breath hitched when his mouth moved over the pulse point at his neck. Then down to his collarbone. His mouth was moving so quickly, and before Remus knew it, Sirius was on his knees and dragging his tongue along Remus’ stomach just above the top of the towel. 

Remus meant to tell him to stop, but before he could open his mouth, Sirius had grabbed him by the hips and pushed him backwards. He stumbled back a step before his back hit the wall behind him, Sirius’ hands still holding him in place before moving down slightly to pull the towel open.

“What are you doing?” Remus asked for the third time, as if his vocabulary had been diminished down to four words simply because of Sirius Black’s presence. And fuck, Sirius must have noticed because he laughed softly before responding, the puff of his breath against Remus’ exposed skin making the situation that much worse. Or better. He couldn’t decide. What was his life right now anyway?

“I’m giving you a blow job,” Sirius said simply as he looked up at Remus, his pupils blown, and Remus thought that his brain would implode in on itself right then and there. “I want to do a lot of things to you.”

“I don’t understand,” Remus breathed.

“Don’t you want me to?” Sirius asked almost obligatorily, much more interested in licking along the hard cock right in front of his face. Of course Sirius knew that Remus wanted him to — Sirius had known for years that Remus had wanted him to but had always been too charitable to ever acknowledge it.

“ _Yes,_ ” Remus gasped as Sirius took him entirely into his mouth, “ _yes, yes,_ I mean wait, _fuck Sirius please_ _wait_.”

Sirius pulled off of him slowly, his eyes looking up at Remus, and sighed dramatically — in a good-spirited sort of way — completely amused by Remus’ befuddlement. He sat back on his heels to look up at Remus’ flustered face.

“I’m waiting,” Sirius proclaimed with a smile, completely unbothered.

Feeling self-conscious that he was being stared at by the fully-clothed object of his fantasies since the age he was capable of even having a crush, Remus leaned down to grab his towel and rewrapped it around his waist. He then slid down the wall until he was sitting against it and eye-level with Sirius.

“What was that?” Remus asked, breath still coming out in light gasps.

“Do you really need me to explain what a blow j—“

“Shut up, Sirius,” Remus said, “ You know what I mean. You don’t get to do that out of fucking nowhere after we haven’t seen each other for three years.”

“I miss you,” he replied simply again. It seemed like Remus never got the full explanation that he wanted out of Sirius — it was always like pulling teeth.

“I miss you too,” Remus responded slowly, “but I don’t go around spontaneously blowing _friends_ I have missed.”

“But you haven’t ever wanted to be just _friends_ with me,” Sirius stated correctly with a shrug and Remus felt his face start to get hot, “And now I don’t either.”

Remus swallowed as he watched Sirius’ face. He wasn’t sure what to say — he couldn’t count how many times he had fantasized about this, at least a thousand in high school. Probably around that in college as well, he hated to admit. But this was out of nowhere, and it didn’t make any sense.

“Nobody has ever cared about me like you do,” Sirius continued, as if reading Remus’ mind, “That’s something I just didn’t realize until I got older, until we got older. I don’t want to go back to communicating through Instagram and only seeing you every three years.”

“I’m not just… I don’t want to be your fuck buddy or whatever you call it,” Remus said.

Sirius burst out into one loud laugh, “You know it’s not like that.”

“No I don’t,” Remus said, shaking his head anxiously, “I don’t know anything.”

“You know me,” Sirius muttered softly, his voice finally giving away that he did indeed feel something while having this conversation, “Do you really think I would just be doing this to fuck around with you?”

“I live in California now,” Remus started, unsure how to respond to Sirius’ previous statement and deciding it was best to plow on, “and I’m applying to grad schools in California. I’ll only come back to Colorado for holidays.”

“I’ll visit you. You think I don’t love the beach? And in a year, if you still like having me around, I’ll apply for jobs in California,” Sirius said with another shrug. “It’s really not that difficult, Remus.”

“Is this why you invited me today?” Remus asked after a beat.

“Yes,” Sirius said, nodding slowly and deliberately, as if Remus was finally registering the point.

“I’m so confused,” Remus groaned in a way that sounded like he was both laughing and crying. He leaned his forehead on top of his bent knees and tried to digest what was happening.

Sirius leaned towards him and placed his hands on top of Remus’ and waited until he lifted his head again. When their eyes met, Remus could see that Sirius wasn’t just fucking around with him. And Sirius was right, he had never fucked around with him before.

“I really like you Remus. I mean, I love you — you know that. We’ve been best friends forever, and even if you don’t want this, that won’t change. But I think we balance each other out really well. And I want to be with you,” Sirius explained, only breaking eye contact to take in more of Remus’ expression. “If you still want that with me too, that is.”

Remus paused for about a minute as he let Sirius’ words sink in, looking all around the guesthouse before finally returning his gaze to Sirius. 

“Alright,” He whispered quietly, a bit fearful for some reason that as soon as he agreed, the opportunity would disappear. 

Instead, Sirius smiled brightly and launched himself forward to kiss Remus again. Remus laughed happily at the enthusiasm and pulled him closer. Sirius responded quickly, pushing Remus’ knees down and crawled forward to straddle him, wrapping his arms around Remus’ neck. They deepened their kiss, tongues softly dancing against each other, and Remus slid his hand under the back of Sirius’ shirt, completely content to stay just like that.

When Sirius’ right hand began to trail back down Remus’ side down to his hip bone, Remus moved to grab it quickly — he knew where this would go if he didn’t — but Sirius was quicker. He found the corner of Remus’ towel and once again pulled it to the side.

“Let me,” he whispered hoarsely into Remus’ ear before taking him into his hand. 

This time, Remus didn’t have the wherewithal to resist, and threw his head back against the wall instead, his breathing 100 percent heavier than it had been just ten seconds ago. 

“Shouldn’t we wait?” Remus tried to reason, but the tone of his voice gave him away. Sirius bit at his earlobe as he leaned forward and continued his rhythmic stroking, laughing a breathy sound into his ear. “Wait until everyone isn’t right outside and we are in — in your room or something?”

“Remus, I am living in the guesthouse this summer,” Sirius hummed and Remus managed to huff out a laugh. Of course he was. 

He turned his neck to catch Sirius’ mouth in another kiss, more frantic this time as he began to thrust up into Sirius hand that had quickly become slicked with his precum. Remus managed to bring his hands down to the front of Sirius’ jeans and worked to unbutton them; however, before he could complete the task, Sirius pulled his hips away from Remus, the only contact between them was now the firm grasp that Sirius had on his cock.

“No,” he said evenly, moving himself between Remus’ legs, “Just you right now.”

Before Remus could protest, Sirius’ mouth was back on him, and he was working quickly, his head bobbing up and down while his mouth hummed happily around his cock. Sirius was clearly enjoying it — maybe even as much as Remus was — and the look he sent Remus pushed him over the edge only a couple of minutes later. Sirius held tightly onto his hips as Remus began to thrust into his mouth erratically, moaning as Remus emptied himself down his throat.

Sirius sent Remus a satisfied smile after pulling off of him a moment later, carefully moving back into his lap and gently kissing along his jaw before arriving at his lips. Remus caught Sirius’ mouth in an instant and kissed back lazily, reaching a hand up to play with his hair, winding a thick lock of it around his finger, like he had always imagined doing.

“Oh my god,” Remus managed to mumble.

Sirius grinned against his lips in response, just before dragging his lips over to Remus’ ear and whispering, “Baby, we are just getting started.”


End file.
